Where are they now?
by Illusionary Ghost
Summary: (Jointed with AILE ANNA) We would like you to picture a time AFTER the shards are reformed and Naraku is defeated. Kagome has returned to her time and the years have passed


(Author's Notes: Anyway, just for those of you who might get confused. We would like you to picture a time AFTER the shards are reformed and Naraku is defeated. Kagome has returned to her time and the years have passed.)

Where are they now? 
    
    By Aile Anna and Yashira

Prologue

__

The Shikon no Tama. 

That's what they called the sparkling red jewel that could grant wishes to those who sought it. It was a powerful thing, said to originate from a terrible battle between a great female warrior-priestess who fought a legion of dreadful youkai. It's said, even now, that the battle still rages on in its depths to forever lock arms against each other. Who knows if this is still true for I have long ceased looking at this Shikon no Tama, though once upon a time, I often had another name for it. 

Shikon no Kakera. 

I never said it was a creative title, but the precious gem that was sought by monsters, youkai, and humans with ill intent, had been sundered in an accident and spread across the vast land of the Sengoku Jidai. What my tale, what -our - tale has yet to tell is the adventure of gathering these pieces and making them whole once again. I may be getting ahead of myself, but these shattered pieces were troublesome to find as getting a hold on one wimpy wolf-

"Hold on, Inu-Koru. If you write that down, you'll be slandering me!" Dressed in creamy beige pants and sweater, with his pupil-less eyes narrowing to pinpricks, Kouga's face was bordering close to fury. Aside from his modern clothes, the remainder of his looks had barely changed. Blue eyes, tanned flesh and long black hair held up in a pony tail, with matching tail that wagged back and forth through a crack in the chair, proved he was still the epitome of Wolf Demon manliness. It was with that dignity that he sat together with Inuyasha, their gazes locked on the glowing monitor as they went over the stuff the hanyou had just written. "And if you slander me, I'll pick up this keyboard and break it over your head." 

"Keh!" the hanyou snorted as he bared his fangs to the wolf demon seated beside him, as if he were daring Kouga to try and carry out his threat. Except for his attire of casual, black baggie jeans and deep red, long sleeved shirt the hanyou looked basically the same as he did back in the Sengoku Jidai. In fact, except for his new modern day clothing, everything about the dog demon was the same - including his quick temper. "As if you could, wimpy wolf!" Growling, Inuyasha stared down his companion, a look of defiant arrogance in his yellow gold eyes. "And for it to be slander, it has to be a lie, and IT IS NOT A LIE!" Closing the distance between them, he stopped when his nose was barely inches from the wolf's face, as if daring him to say otherwise to his claim. 

"Well, it AIN'T going into print because," and as Kouga growled back, revealing his own sharp teeth, his hand slipped onto the keyboard and deftly pressed backspace, "you can't publish what's not there. NOW, if we correct this to stinky dog hanyou, now well... that's acceptable." 

Inuyasha leapt up from his chair, causing it to fall backwards and to crash onto floor with a loud bang, but he ignored it as he growled even more viscously at Kouga. "Stinky? Have you smelled YOURSELF lately? Ain't nothing worse than the reek of a wimpy wolf!" One clawed hand was on the hilt of the sword resting at his left hip, his thumb ready to click and release the Tesusaiga from its sheath and take down this annoying pest.

"If you want accuracy, it should be saying stupid, wimpy wolf with shit for brains!" He exclaimed, his voice reverberating off the walls. As the shock waves of his own voice bounced back to him, the hanyou suddenly yelped and clutched at the two white triangular ears atop his head. "Bastard." He hissed through gritted teeth, "Just shut up and write the damn book!" Annoyance ate at him. Why the hell did he agree to write this book with that stupid wolf anyway?

Kouga was probably thinking the same thing because the deadly growl issuing from his lips, as he glared at Inuyasha, was just about ready to turn into a full-fledge howl. It was a stupid idea to work on this book with this moron, but the damn publisher had suggested they do a collaboration because they were both so knowledgeable on the time period they were working from. Fucking publisher. Kouga should have known better than to sign on to this stupid company. What could Yashira No Mori Publishing Ltd. account for anyway… aside from being related to this dog-turd? He'd have to talk to Aile Anna again, and demand to know what his damn literary agent did in her free time.

"You dare tell me to shut up? Looks whose talking about SHIT for brains, Inu-koru! You're the one who was two-timing MY Kagome back in the Sengoku Jidai, and did you leave ANY of that in for the book? Oh no, you conveniently left it out too." He refrained from lunging at the hanyou, for the centuries which had passed to bring him to the present era, had been kind enough to reserve to Kouga a sort of patience about these things. _A sort of patience _though, only went so far when it didn't revert to matters like Kagome.

Inuyasha felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle in anger at Kouga's words. How dare this poor excuse for a demon accuse him of two-timing Kagome! It wasn't his fault Kikyou had been brought back from the dead. Okay, so maybe it was. If he had never said the woman's name, she would have still remained in the afterlife, but that was the past. This was the here and now, and they had a book to publish. He had no time to sit here and argue with this pigheaded wolf.

*Wait ' til I get my hands on that sister of mine!* His mind raged, thinking of all the mental torment he would put Yashira through for forcing him to co-write this book with Kouga - of all people. Not only did the brainless wolf think he knew everything, but it was Inuyasha's conviction that Kouga would also try to steal all the glory of defeating Naraku for himself. 

Regaining his composure as best he could, Inuyasha reached down and up righted his discarded chair, *I refuse to let this wimpy wolf get to me.* Turning to the said wimpy wolf, "You're just jealous because Kagome didn't want your sorry ass, now can we get on with this, the sooner we get it done, the sooner we can get the hell away from each other!" 

"Jealous of you? I hardly think I'd be jealous of a dog. They are the lesser breed." Kouga lifted an eyebrow with the sort of smug amusement he got whenever Inuyasha talked about his relationship to Kagome. In the hanyou's brain there was no room for Kouga and Kagome, whereas in Kouga's thoughts the two were already husband and wife - boyfriend and girlfriend and there was definitely no room for Inuyasha. With a stretch of his shoulders, Kouga drew back comfortably in his own black folding chair before looking back at the computer. "And it's the only thing I agree with you that we might as well finish this off. The faster it gets done, the faster I can be free of my promise." 

The promise consisted of NOT looking for Kagome until after she returned from the Sengoku Jidai for the last time and he and Inu-koru got this damn book published. Unlike Inu-koru, Kouga was adamant about keeping his word.

"Fine!" Inuyasha turned away, his silvery white hair, braided neatly down his back, swinging with the motion. He almost wished it had thwacked the wolf in the head, at least he would have gained some satisfaction. But it was true, they did have to finish the book, only then could he go and search for HIS Kagome. It had been too long since the hanyou had seen the reincarnation of his first love. First, publish the book, then kick wolf boy's butt, and then Kagome would once again be his.

"Just don't interrupt me next time, baka, or I'll drown you a vat of flea dip!" The hanyou grunted as he lay his clawed fingers on the keyboard and prepared to write once more. Soon this hellish nightmare with Kouga would be finished, and he could once again be united with his young miko.

"Just don't write slanderous things about me and I won't have to stick the keyboard up your nose." With a nonchalant shrug, Kouga, reached for the keyboard and tried to key in a few more lines. This was a bad idea, he should have known better, but he had to make his money somehow. There were only so many jobs an out of work wolf demon could take and walking the streets WASN'T one of them.

Perhaps, once upon a time, this sort of scene would have been played out completely different. Inuyasha might have ran Tesusaiga into Kouga, screaming out Bakuryuuha, and Kouga would have quickly whirled away as was his usual want. Yet those days had long since come and gone after the destruction of Naraku's last abode and his ultimate defeat, Kagome's farewell, along with the passing of Miroku and Sango during the long years that followed after. Things had changed drastically between Inuyasha and Kouga as the world and corresponding ages came and went. Though the two had often quarreled as they did in the past, it sometimes seemed more out of habit than anything else. 

As Inuyasha thought of the next lines to put down for the book, a realization hit him; they still did not have a title. "Oi, we need a name for this thing…and I got the perfect name for it." A gleam entered his liquid pools of gold as he spoke the words that had come to him so easily, the name that fit this tale of woe and adventure like a glove. "What about naming it 'Inuyasha, A Feudal Fairytale'." 

"In your dreams Inu-koru. Who the fuck would read something with the name Inuyasha on it?! It will never sell." Rolling his eyes at the improbability of Inuyasha's stupid idea, Kouga crossed his arms and sat frowning in his chair. "We should call it the Defeat of Naraku by the clever and witty - and oh so cool- Demon Wolf Prince Kouga." 

No one said that Kouga, Prince of Wolves, couldn't be just as cocky as the hanyou. 

"That's a stupid title!" Inuyasha rolled his eyes despairingly. The wolf had about as much imagination as a brick lying in mud. "I say it's going to be…"

A slight rapping followed by the creaking of the office door behind them stopped Inuyasha. Turning to see who had dared interrupt his ego bashing of Kouga, he spied a slim, auburn haired woman. Her green dress draped loosely about her, the smooth velvet swishing softly as she approached the two canine demons, Aile Anna was not a person Inuyasha wanted to see right now, then again, she was the wolf whelp's agent, not his.

Brilliant green eyes like wet emeralds swept the room before finally coming to rest on the bickering demons. Aile Anna silently sighed in relief when she saw that not only were Kouga and Inuyasha both still alive, but the office was still in tact. The last time they'd left the two working together not only were the police called in to pull the two apart, but it took two days to put out the fire.

As her eyes met Inuyasha's she gave the hanyou a genuine smile, "Hello Inuyasha, I see you two are working well today." The quirk of her eyebrow and questioning tone indicated she had been listening to the two outside the door before entering. So engrossed in his argument with Kouga was Inuyasha, his keen ears had not heard the approaching woman. Grunting a reply, the hanyou glared daggers at the wolf. 

"Kouga, how is the book coming along?" She questioned the wolf prince as she peered at the computer screen, only to have the hanyou move so his back blocked the monitor. Turning back to Kouga, a tight smile pursed her lips. "Well, Kouga, I'm waiting. As your agent, I must know how things are going." Her deep green eyes nearly rolled, how had Yashira talked her into representing a stubborn, arrogant youkai was beyond her. (Yashira: With a lot of money.)

Glancing at Inuyasha for a brief moment, Kouga's lips quirking into a sour frown as if he had just tasted something icky. When he looked back at Aile Anna, his face still wore that same unforgiving look. He had few friends in this world now, but it seemed that Inuyasha's companions still out numbered his at least by 3 to 1. "Keh. It's coming along great. We even named it, The amazing adventures of Kouga, Prince of Wolves."

Aile Anna's mouth slightly dropped as she side glanced at the inu-hanyou sitting beside her client. 

"Like hell it is! The title is Inuyasha: A Feudal Fairytale!" Inuyasha exclaimed as he once again bared his teeth and began to growl.

This time the priestess turned publishing agent did roll her eyes. Sighing quite audibly, her breath fanning out between her lips, Aile Anna gave each of the demons a hard glare. "There will be NO fighting, or I will purify you both to dust." She threatened, her aura crackling angrily about her. She really did not want another near scandal like last time. "Since neither of you can agree on a title, then Yashira and I will assist you." Taking a deep calming breath and satisfied that she had settled the argument, Aile Anna exited the room, thankful once again that it was still in tact. Once outside, she grabbed her cell phone and proceeded to call the publisher.

"Now, you've done it," Kouga muttered darkly, his voice a dark whisper as he glanced angrily at the doorway where Aile Anna had gone. Aile Anna got results. When she wanted things done, they got done, but what a way to go about it. "IF you hadn't insisted with that ridiculous title of yours, she wouldn't have had to call the publicist."

"MY ridiculous title? What about yours?" Inuyasha was pissed. How could that stupid wolf do such a thing? It was bad enough that Aile Anna threatened him, but now he would have to deal with an irate Yashira. "If you had kept your big mouth shut, we wouldn't be in this freaking mess! The amazing adventures of Kouga Prince of Wolves, more like pansy boy, prince of fools!" The hanyou snorted, expressing a combination of both fear of his older sister and anger at the wolf prince. "When this is all over, I'm kicking your wimpy ass all over Tokyo." 

And while that was progressing, the two of them failed to hear the soft voice replying in answer to Aile Anna, who was still on her cell phone, that the book should be called _Shikon no Kakera._


End file.
